Time for grapes in Lavaux, a UNESCO heritage vineyard
This is the best time of the year to visit these centenary terraced vineyards: with the colors of the fall starting to shine, still nice and quiet weather, bright blue hues in the lake, the Alps in the back, and abundant grapes ready to harvest.
In Switzerland, Lac Léman (Lake Geneva in English) has the privilege of hosting a wonderful UNESCO World Heritage Site: the terraced vineyards of Lavaux. They consist of around 800 hectares of terraced vineyards spread over 30 km roughly between Lausanne and Vevey, along the north shore of the lake. The site is extremely sunny, not only because of its slope and orientation facing south but also because it receives both direct sunlight and also the reflection, all day long, of the sun on the lake. Some locals in fact call this region the land of the 2 (some say 3) suns!
Vines have been grown in the area since Roman times. The vine terraces we can enjoy today were built around the 11th century by local monks. In fact, all this region is transversed by the Via Francigena, a pilgrimage route that connects England to Italy. This route, which I covered in a special story here, crosses the whole Lavaux region along with other easy…
